N00731:54
The folly of sinning, opened & applied, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation…The folly of sinning, opened & applyed, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation…
The folly of sinning, opened & applied, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation of one that was executed at Boston in New-England, on November 17th. 1698. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel at Boston in N.E. ; [Two lines from Romans]The folly of sinning, opened & applyed, in two sermons, occasioned by the condemnation of one that was executed at Boston in New-England, on November 17th. 1698. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge, in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel at Boston in N.E. ; [Two lines from Romans]
Boston: printed by B Green for Michael Perry over against the Town House, 1699
THE FOLLY OF Sinning. › Sermon 2 › Proposition 2: PROPOSITION. II.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But Sin is such an Evil, as the best intention in the world can never make it to be good. Others think to excuse what they have done amiss, by pretending that if it were sin, yet it was no great sin. Ephraim said, they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin. Hos. 12.8. He means, no Iniquity that were a great sin. Nevertheless, he loved to Oppress; but thought that such Oppression as that which the Prophets charged him with, was no such great sin. Men are apt to say of their sins, as Lot said of Zoar, Gen. 19.20. It is a little One? Is it not a little One? They call their sins peccadillo's; whereas no sin can be so absolutely considered. Although some sins compared with others are small, nevertheless, that which is (as the least sin is) an offence against the Infinite Majesty, cannot be a little Evil. Papists have invented distinctions to make their sins appear little▪ Some are venial they say, and not mortal; so they distinguish Lies into pernicious and officious. As if […] ⟨p. 57⟩tell a Lie to do a Neighbour a kindness, were no evil. But the Scripture teacheth us better. Rom. 3.8. we may not do evil that good may come of it. When that Case was proposed to Austin, whether a man might not tell a Lie, if he could thereby▪ save his friends Life, he answered, No, by no means. Nay, (said he) if it were possible for thee to save the Soul of thy friend by telling a Lie for it, thou mayst not do it: And though this may seem severe, it is sound Doctrine. For no man can tell a Lie without dishonouring God, by sinning against him: And it were better that any man in the world should perish, then that God should be dishonoured.
But Sin is such an Evil, as the best intention in the world can never make it to be good. Others think to excuse what they have done amiss, by pretending that if it were sin, yet it was no great sin. Ephraim said, they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin. Hos. 12.8. He means, no Iniquity that were a great sin. Nevertheless, he loved to Oppress; but thought that such Oppression as that which the Prophets charged him with, was no such great sin. Men are apt to say of their sins, as Lot said of Zoar,